Brand New-The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

I know this is a few years old, and that it mainly appeals to the emo crowd...but deep down, I think we have to admit, we can all be a little emo at times, so bear with me. It's definitely a guilty pleasure, and I'm not afraid to admit it whatsoever.

The album opens with a quiet introduction, which is basically spoken word over quiet guitar. Within a minute, you are blasted by a rapid crescendo, and yelling. It is by far the most expressive, with its highs, lows, and crescendos.

The second track, "Millstone", is one of the album's ballads. It is more melodic, and has far less screaming than the other songs on the album. It uses the drums to its advantage, with the song growing quiet and only vocals and rudimentary guitar over them.

"Jesus Christ"...This song is purely aimed at getting with emo scene girls.

Track four, "Degausser", flaunts an eerie sounding chorus. The voices ring in dissonance, creating a creepy and melancholy sound.

Track six, "You Won't Know", another screaming, crescendo-ing song, gives the album back its intensity after the last three mellow tracks. It's a lot more angry than the first track, and basically the entire CD.

"Welcome to Bangkok", mainly an instrumental, fills your ears with distortion pedals, some weird background synth, and random yelling in the background, is definitely unecessary to the overall album.

Track eight, "Not the Sun", is a song about unrequited love by a scorned man. Despite its depressing topic, its sound is one of the most upbeat on the album.

"Archers" comes the closest to their older sound, still filled with anguish, but holding a lot more melody than other tracks.

The last song, "Handcuffs", is a mellow ballad that is a little pretty, with acoustic guitars, and keyboards. It's like letting out that last sigh, after you've let go of your anger and frustration, which Brand New had no problem expressing on the other tracks on the album.

Overall, their sound on this album is more dark and melancholy than on previous albums, which featured a more emo-punk sound than just plain emo. It's not their best CD, and maybe they are overrated, but I'm fine keeping this in my guilty pleasure file.


The Damage:



4 out of 5 mustaches